After the disastrous flight that resulted in the retirement of my AeroScout, I ordered the replacement fuselage and main wings and got them delivered a few days later. It came pretty well assembled but there were a few minor pieces that had to be salvaged from the crashed aircraft, which is typical I guess for these types of radio controlled aircraft. If something happens to this one I will definitely keep whatever salvageable parts there are for future use.
There needed to be a number of checks carried out to make sure the control surfaces were aligned properly and so a few days ago I went out to the field to check everything out. It has been quite windy here lately and the wind generally starts to pick up about 0900 or 1000 or so. As we go to the field for about 0800 we can get a good hour in before it is too windy for me to fly. First task was just taxiing up and down to see if controls were correct on the ground. After that it was a short flight to check everything in the air. The aircraft took off okay but I was having to put in almost full deflection on the ailerons to keep it going straight.
Wayne is the local instructor for the club and assisted me with a few things to align the control rods properly and all seemed to be good. One of the main tests to check the ailerons and rudder is to fly inverted. If you read my post on the crash, I have become somewhat proficient in flying the aircraft inverted, but to do the checks you need to test the control surfaces, it needs to be kept there for a longer time that I am capable of doing. So, Wayne assisted and helped set everything up.
With the controls aligned I landed, changed the battery to a new one and took off for another flight. All went well and I was pleased.
It was still bothering me how it came to be that I crashed even though I switched it to Safe Mode. So, before I landed on the second flight I climbed up high and began to invert the aircraft and put it into a spin to simulate losing control of it. As the aircraft began to fall I switched it into Safe Mode and the aircraft righted itself and continued flying straight and level. So, it is clear to me I waited too long trying to fly it out of the sun to recover and should have immediately put it into that mode to allow continued flight. Lesson learned.
Photo Op
On the way home from the field I decided to stop by the local community park and let the AeroScout hang out on the fence with the two McDonnell F-4 Phantom II aircraft that are permanently located there.
I did some research on these two aircraft as there is no signage or other to indicate why they are there. However, there is a commemorative plaque in front of them for a local soldier from Quartzsite who served admirably in the US Army in a variety of roles. I did find the aircraft were assigned to Quartzite by a US military group called Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group. Their main reason for being is to warehouse and store surplus or retired aircraft. They store some in order to be able to make them operational again if needed, or assign some to local communities, or send them to be recycled. I would think they assigned these two aircraft as a commemorative gesture related to the service provided by M/Sgt Markestad
Thanks for reading.
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